DISPLAYING DATA OF A DATA PROCESSING SYSTEM

Abstract

A graphical data priority representation for visualization and control of data processing in data processing systems such as industrial Internet of things systems is provided.

Claims

1. A method of displaying data of a data processing system, wherein the data processing system comprises a plurality of data nodes configured to provide data samples, the method comprising: generating a graphical data priority representation, the generating of the graphical data priority representation comprising: displaying, in a first display dimension, a first list with members representing the data samples, wherein each of the members of the first list has an associated priority level; displaying, in a second display dimension, a second list with members comprising data sample sub-types, wherein each of the members of the second list has an associated priority level, and wherein each display dimension of the first display dimension and the second display dimension is ordered according to the priority levels associated with the members of the first list and the members of the second list, respectively; and displaying a priority boundary demarcating different portions of the graphical data priority representation that are associated with different priority levels.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each member of the first list represents a group of data samples, each of the groups of data samples being provided by one or more data nodes.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein one or more of the members of the first list represents a data sample type.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the graphical data priority representation comprises one or more further display dimensions based on further characteristics of the data samples from the data nodes.

5. A method of defining priorities for data processing in a data processing system, the method comprising: displaying data of a data processing system, wherein the data processing system comprises a plurality of data nodes configured to provide data samples, the displaying of the data comprising: generating a graphical data priority representation, the generating of the graphical data priority representation comprising: displaying, in a first display dimension, a first list with members representing the data samples, wherein each of the members of the first list has an associated priority level; displaying, in a second display dimension, a second list with members comprising data sample sub-types, wherein each of the members of the second list has an associated priority level, and wherein each display dimension of the first display dimension and the second display dimension is ordered according to the priority levels associated with the members of the first list and the members of the second list, respectively; and displaying a priority boundary demarcating different portions of the graphical data priority representation that are associated with different priority levels; and changing the priority levels associated with members of one or more lists of the first list and the second list, the changing of the priority levels comprising re-drawing the priority boundary on the graphical data priority representation.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein re-drawing the priority boundary is performed by a user via a user interface.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein each member of the first list represents a group of data samples, each of the groups of data samples being provided by one or more data nodes.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein one or more of the members of the first list represents a data sample type.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the graphical data priority representation comprises one or more further display dimensions based on further characteristics of the data samples from the data nodes.

10. A method of controlling data processing in a data processing system, the method comprising: defining data priority levels for data processing in a data processing system, the defining of the data priority levels comprising: displaying data of a data processing system, wherein the data processing system comprises a plurality of data nodes configured to provide data samples, the displaying of the data comprising: generating a graphical data priority representation, the generating of the graphical data priority representation comprising: displaying, in a first display dimension, a first list with members representing the data samples, wherein each of the members of the first list has an associated priority level; displaying, in a second display dimension, a second list with members comprising data sample sub-types, wherein each of the members of the second list has an associated priority level, and wherein each display dimension of the first display dimension and the second display dimension is ordered according to the priority levels associated with the members of the first list and the members of the second list, respectively; and displaying a priority boundary demarcating different portions of the graphical data priority representation that are associated with different priority levels; and changing the priority levels associated with members of one or more lists of the first list and the second list, the changing of the priority levels comprising re-drawing the priority boundary on the graphical data priority representation; and processing the data according to the defined priority levels.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein processing the data according to the defined priority levels comprises: collecting selected data from the data nodes; transmitting selected data from the data nodes to a remote platform; storing selected data at a remote platform; analyzing selected data at a remote platform; or any combination thereof, wherein the data is selected according to the data priority levels.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the selection of data according to the data priority levels comprises selecting data in order of the priority levels from a highest priority level to a lowest priority level.

13. A data processing system comprising: a plurality of data nodes configured to provide data samples a processor configured to generate a graphical data priority representation, the generation of the graphical data priority representation comprising: display, in a first display dimension, a first list with members representing the data samples, wherein each member of the first list has an associated priority level; display, in a second display dimension, a second list with members comprising data sample sub-types, wherein each member of the second list has an associated priority level, and wherein each display dimension of the first display dimension and the second display dimension is ordered according to data priority levels associated with each list member; and display a priority boundary demarcating different portions of the graphical data priority representation that are associated with different priority levels.

14. In a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions executable by a computing device to generate a graphical data priority representation for data samples provided by a plurality of data nodes in a data processing system, the instructions comprising: generating the graphical data priority representation, the generating of the graphical data priority representation comprising: displaying, in a first display dimension, a first list with members representing the data samples, wherein each member of the first list has an associated priority level; displaying, in a second display dimension, a second list with members comprising data sample sub-types, wherein each member of the second list has an associated priority level, and wherein each display dimension of the first display dimension and the second display dimension is ordered according to data priority levels associated with each list member; and displaying a priority boundary demarcating different portions of the graphical data priority representation that are associated with different priority levels.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein each member of the first list represents a group of data samples, each of the groups of data samples being provided by one or more data nodes.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein one or more of the members of the first list represents a data sample type.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the graphical data priority representation comprises one or more further display dimensions based on further characteristics of the data samples from the data nodes.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0026] The shown embodiments are intended to illustrate, not limit, the invention. The drawings contain the following figures, in which like numbers refer to like parts throughout the description and drawings and wherein:

[0027] FIG. 1 shows one embodiment of a data processing system;

[0028] FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of a graphical data priority representation that may be used with the data processing system of FIG. 1; and

[0029] FIG. 3 shows aspects of a possible implementation for a graphical data priority representation.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0030] FIG. 1 shows one embodiment of a data processing system 10 (e.g., a system 10). The data processing system 10 may be an IoT system. In the example of FIG. 1, a device network 12 is provided at a manufacturing plant 14. The device network 12 includes a plurality of data nodes 16. Any number of data nodes 16 may be provided (e.g., from a single node up to many millions or more); but for the purpose of illustration, however, three exemplar types of data node 16 are shown.

[0031] One type of data node 16 includes a collection of sensors 18, each providing corresponding data samples. Another type of data node 16 includes a controller 20, such as a programmable logic controller (PLC), that provides data samples gathered from machinery such as a drive 22 and a motor 24. Another type of data node 16 includes a sensor 18. The sensor 18 in this type of data node 16 does not need to be associated with any specific (e.g., industrial) device. The sensor 18 may be used to monitor other aspects such as ambient temperature or humidity and so on. Many other types of data nodes that are not illustrated in FIG. 1 may be provided.

[0032] The data processing system 10 includes network infrastructure including a communications bus 26 that may be coupled with the data nodes 16. The data nodes 16 may communicate data samples via field protocols such as PROFINET, PROFIBUS, Industrial Ethernet, EtherCAT, and so on.

[0033] The device network 12 is connected to a gateway 28 that acts to exchange data between the device network 12 and a remote platform 30 (e.g., via a firewall 32). The gateway 28 may include a switching device and various other components to receive data from the device network 12 and send the data on to the remote platform 30 for processing, reporting, and analysis. The remote platform 30 may provide a cloud service for carrying out these functions.

[0034] The remote platform 30 may then send instructions back to the gateway 28 for adjusting the operation of the device network 12. The gateway 28 relays the instructions via the network infrastructure to the connected devices to adjust operational parameters of the connected devices.

[0035] This is one example of a data processing system 10 to which the present disclosure may be applied.

[0036] As shown in the non-limiting and specific example of FIG. 2, the present disclosure provides a graphical data priority representation 34 (e.g., data priority map) that may be used to visualize priorities for data that is to be processed in a data processing system 10. The graphical data priority representation 34 includes the grid that is shown. The other annotations in the figure are for purposes of illustration only, although in alternative embodiments data such as priority levels or row/column indices may be displayed. The graphical data priority representation 34 also includes one or more priority boundaries 36 that are used to demarcate different portions of the graphical data priority representation 34 that are associated with different priority levels.

[0037] In one embodiment, a user interface may be provided to define priorities for data processing. The user interface may suitably provide a way (e.g., a device) for interacting with displayed priority boundaries 36 to change the priority levels for given data samples, data types, data sub-types, or other data characteristics.

[0038] A data node 16 provides data samples or a set of data samples from one or more data source. Each data source provides data of a particular type. Data from each data source may be associated with a particular priority level that may represent a relative importance as compared with other data items. The priority level may suitably be represented by numerical value but may be represented in other ways (e.g., alphabetical or alphanumeric characters, descriptive text strings, symbols, colors, or combinations of such).

[0039] Data samples provided from each data source may also have a sub-type, which may define some other characteristic of the data samples that are being collected. Data samples may also have other characteristics beyond the basic type and sub-type.

[0040] In a graphical data priority representation 34 according to the disclosure, a list 38 (e.g., first list 38) is presented in a first display dimension 40. The list 38 has members that represent the data samples from the data nodes 16. Members of the list 38 may include a descriptor for each individual data source, or for each individual data node 16, or members of the list 38 may include descriptors of groups of data samples. The groups may be arbitrarily defined (e.g., being groups of data sources that are in a given location or are linked to a particular function or workflow). The groups may include descriptors of data types. The list 38 may include members with a mixture of descriptors (e.g., some descriptors for specific data sources, and some descriptors for general data types).

[0041] In a graphical data priority representation 34 according to the disclosure, at least one second list 42 is displayed. The second list 42 has members that include data sample sub-types. Members of the second list(s) 42 may include a descriptor for each data sub-type and a descriptor of an associated priority level for each sub-type. The priority level may be defined as discussed above.

[0042] Normally, a separate second list 42 representing data sample sub-types will be displayed for each member of the first list 38 representing the data samples. However, there may be some members of the first list 38 for which there are no data sub-types. In this case, no separate second list 42 is displayed.

[0043] The data priority representation/data priority map (DPM) 34 of FIG. 2 represents an embodiment of the disclosure in which there are two display dimensions 40, 44. However, additional display dimensions may be added to represent alternative or additional characteristics of the data from the data nodes 16.

[0044] The data types, data priority levels, data sub-types and respective descriptors may be included in metadata in the data generated by the data nodes 16, or may be inferred from context.

[0045] The display dimensions 40, 44 of the graphical data priority representation 34 are ordered by priority level so that members of the lists 38, 42 that have the same priority levels are grouped together. This may be achieved by ordering the lists in each display dimension 40, 44 in the same sense (e.g., either all in increasing order of priority or all in decreasing order of priority), such that different portions of the displayed graphical data priority representation 34 are populated with members that have different priority levels. The different portions may be demarcated with priority boundaries 36 so that a user may easily understand how the data processing will be carried out by the data processing system 10.

[0046] In the example of FIG. 2, the two dimensions 40, 44 of the data priority representation 34 are based on inter comparison and intra comparison of industrial data.

[0047] For inter-comparison of data, certain types of data (e.g., alarms and events) may be of higher priority than the time series data (e.g., temperature values).

[0048] For intra-comparison of data, certain time series values may be collected with a higher priority with a lower sample rate, and others may be collected with a lower priority with a higher sample rate. For example, collecting temperature values every 60 seconds may be deemed as being of relatively higher priority as compared with collecting temperature values every 5 seconds. The rate of data collection is a data sub-type, with different values having different priorities.

[0049] The rows R1, R2, R3, R4 of the data priority representation 34 contain different types of industrial data like alarms & events (A&E), time series data points, and log files. The rows are used, for example, for inter-comparison of data.

[0050] Data of various types are placed in the rows in the decreasing order of priority. A&E data may, for example, be more important than time series data, followed by data from log files.

[0051] The columns C1, C2, C3, C4 of the data priority representation 34 contain different data sub-types and are arranged according to different priority levels that may correspond to different depths for collection of data. For example, data samples of a type of alarms and events may have data sub-types including error, warning, and information (info) categories. Similar sub-types may also exist for log files.

[0052] Time series data samples may be collected according to data sub-types that define different sampling rates such as once per 60 seconds (1/60 s), 5/60 s, etc. The columns are used, for example, for intra-comparison of data. Data of different depths are placed in the columns in the decreasing order of priorities.

[0053] In this priority map, priority boundaries 36 are defined. For example, three priority boundaries 36 are shown in the sample data priority representation 34. The priority boundaries 36 define different portions of the data priority representation 34 that represent different priority levels. A first portion includes the DPM cells {(R1, C1), (R2, C1), (R2, C2), (R3, C1)}. The data in this portion has the highest priority level and contains the A&E errors, temperature values with a sampling rate of 5 per minute, and pressure values with a sampling rate of once per hour.

[0054] Similarly, a second portion includes DPM cells {(R1, C2), (R2, C3), (R3, C2), (R4, C1)}. The data in this portion has a priority level of a second relative value and contains the A&E warnings, temperature values with a sampling rate of 10 per minute, pressure values with a sampling rate of 10x per hour, and error log files.

[0055] Similarly, a third portion includes DPM cells {(R1, C3), (R2, C4), (R3, C3), (R4, C2)}. The data in this portion has a priority level of a third relative value and contains the A&E information data, temperature values with a sampling rate of 30 per minute, pressure values with a sampling rate of 60x per hour, and error warning log files.

[0056] One example area where the present disclosure has utility is in the area of cloud platforms for the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). Typically, data from a device network 12 that may include industrial automation systems, machines, sensors, etc. is collected via cloud gateways 28 and sent to a remote platform 30 for storage and analysis.

[0057] The types of industrial data collected in this manner may have different priorities defined for the processing of the data. The processing includes, for example, collection of the data from data nodes 16, transmission of data to the remote platform 30 via the gateway 28, storage of the data in the remote platform 30, or analysis of the data by the remote platform 30.

[0058] There are various use cases for the prioritization of data for processing. For example: 1. Data of higher priority may be collected first from a data node 16, and the lower priority data may be collected only if the system (e.g., data node 16 along with the cloud gateway 28) performance capacity permits; 2. Data of higher priority may be transmitted to the remote platform 30 first followed by the lower priority data; 3. Data of higher priority may undergo stringent checks for error detection (e.g., cyclic redundancy checks) as compared to the data of lower priority; 4. Data of higher priority may be stored on fast and efficient storage in the cloud, while data of lower priority may be stored on alternative more cost-efficient storage; and 5. In a pricing model for cloud services, the price for collecting high priority data may be higher than that of low priority data.

[0059] Each of these use cases is improved by the present disclosure, which provides for easy and intuitive management of priority levels for controlling these parameters.

[0060] The graphical data priority representation 34 may be implemented in any computing device with a user interface (UI) or a human machine interface (HMI). FIG. 3 illustrates an implementation embodiment of a data priority representation system 46. The data priority representation system 46 includes two main components: a UI component 48 and a back-end component 50 with the appropriate data structure and data storage. The two components 48, 50 may reside on a single computing device or may be on different devices. Typically, in cloud environments, the UI 48 runs locally on a user's PC and the back-end component 50 runs in a data center.

[0061] The UI component 48 may be implemented via hypertext markup language version 5 (HTML5), the JavaScript library known as UIS, and other such technologies. The user interacts with the UI component 48 to define the inter-comparisons of data, intra-comparisons of data, and the priority boundaries 36. The user interaction may be facilitated by touch technology, pointing technology, or simply input via a keyboard.

[0062] The present embodiments may be applied to plants, plant sections (e.g., test fields), plant components (e.g., assembly lines or production lines), and plant units (e.g., pumps, squeezer, compressors or machines).

[0063] The present embodiments may be used in production industries, manufacturing industries, continuous industries, process industries, and batch processing industries.

[0064] In addition to the embodiments described above, those of skill in the art will be able to arrive at a variety of other arrangements and steps that, if not explicitly described in this document, nevertheless embody the principles of the invention and fall within the scope of the appended claims.

[0065] The present embodiments provide a graphical data priority representation 34 for the visualization and control of data processing in data processing systems 10 such as industrial Internet of things (IIoT) systems. The terms data samples, sample data, and data, as used herein, are synonyms.

[0066] The elements and features recited in the appended claims may be combined in different ways to produce new claims that likewise fall within the scope of the present invention. Thus, whereas the dependent claims appended below depend from only a single independent or dependent claim, it is to be understood that these dependent claims may, alternatively, be made to depend in the alternative from any preceding or following claim, whether independent or dependent. Such new combinations are to be understood as forming a part of the present specification.

[0067] While the present invention has been described above by reference to various embodiments, it should be understood that many changes and modifications can be made to the described embodiments. It is therefore intended that the foregoing description be regarded as illustrative rather than limiting, and that it be understood that all equivalents and/or combinations of embodiments are intended to be included in this description.